I distinctly remember my mom trying to convince me to wear Garanimals when they first arrived on the scene. Like your daughter, I was nine. I was opposed to them because they weren’t Levis, and I thought the tag matching was a bit infantile and definitely not cool (even in rural Central California). My argument didn’t work because a) Levis cost way more, and b) I had to wear them for two academic years.

I’m sort of confused about what problem this solves. Don’t get me wrong, the animal-matching mechanic seems like fun, but was it really that hard to match pants and shirts according to 70s fashion protocols? Did those giant tags stay attached to the garments, so kids could pick out their own outfits (surely not)?

I’m speaking historically, and of my experience from grade school. Kids were teased for wearing them above a certain age.

For the adult crowd, there are plenty of fashion consultants and even websites that will curate and ship clothing to you, but in my experience many of those guys don’t care and don’t want to bother with it.

Which is why a “match the cthulu tags” approach would be of interest to them. If its as simple as buying a particular brand and matching some dead simple cue to make sure thing go together in a basic way I know plenty of people who’d be all over that. The same sort of guys who only buy blue jeans and t-shirts or polos in restricted color pallets so their entire wardrobe matches and they can just grab a fist full of cloths on their way out of the shower.

I too, grew up a little too early for Garanimals and had to endure the Toughskins phase.
Though if I remember correctly, there was another company that was doing this before Garanimals, but didn’t market themselves quite as well.

Growing up in Wichita in the 1970’s was kind of a mixed blessing. On one hand, you had those cool, silky rayon shirts with the mother-of-pearl snaps they sold at Shepler’s (and once, a pair of square-toed motorcycle-styled boots). On the other hand, you had those awesome Billy the Kid jeans, which were rapidly pulled from clothing stores because of the moniker of the serial killer du jour, BTK.